I'm Truly Me That's All I Can Be
by justawriter7
Summary: The world seen through the eyes of Angelina Johnson. Who, will the help of some very familiar people, goes from a quiet, yet determined girl to a confident young woman who helps save the Wizarding world and beyond.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

I hope you enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

* * *

It was finally my turn.

Today, I was going to start my first year at Hogwarts.

It wasn't my first time at platform 9 3/4. I had watched my Denise and Gabe (my older brother and sister) board the Hogwarts Express their first years. Mum always liked to tell everyone the story of how I tried to follow Denise aboard her first year when I was five years old.

"Every year since then I made sure to never let go of her hand, Angie has always been such a determined young girl," She would say. Well this year was definitely different because she wasn't holding my hand. In fact, her arms were currently wrapped around me.

"Oh can you believe it Arnold? Our baby is going off to school," She exclaimed. I felt her shudder and I knew that she had started crying.

"Um, Mum we have to go, we're going to be late," Denise said.

"Yes sweetheart she's right," Dad added. "They will be back home for Christmas before you know it."

Mum nodded, "Yes, no time at all." She released me from her embrace.

"Don't worry Mum, I'll be fine," I assured her.

"Angie come on!" I heard Gabe shout. I said a final goodbye to my parents before I followed my brother and sister to the train. I felt a sense of excitement sneak up on me as I boarded the Hogwarts Express. I looked around, there were so many people everywhere. People were running from compartment to compartment, obviously trying to catch up with as many people as possible before the train started moving.

I couldn't find one that was empty and it soon became clean that I was going to have to ask someone to sit with them. Although, I did think about just looking for Gabe or Denise and sitting with them. I decided against that though, Denise was in her 7th year and Gabe was in his 5th. They were going to gone in a few years. I needed to meet people on my own.

All I had to do now was figure out who to ask. I heard laughing and I saw three boys sitting in one of the compartments. Two of them had bright red hair and one had dark brown hair. They looked to be about my age. I knocked on the door and all three looked over at me. I pulled the door open and stuck my head inside.

"Would you guys mind if I sat in here?" I asked.

"No. No-"

"Of course you can si-"

"Feel free." I gave them a small smile and then walked into the compartment. I closed the door behind me and sat next to one of the redheads. For a moment it was silent as the four of us sat there awkwardly.

"I'm Fred," the boy next to me said. He stuck out his hand and I laughed a little as I shook it.

"This is my brother George," He continued. George smiled at me and I returned his smile.

"And that's Lee," Fred added. I looked over at Lee, who was staring at me.

"Lee," Fred said as he snapped his fingers in front of his face.

Lee blinked a couple times before he finally managed to say, "Hi."

"I'm Angelina,"I stated. As soon as I said that the train began to move.

"Here we go," Fred exclaimed as he sat back in his seat. "Off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"So you are all first years?" I asked.

"No," Lee and Fred answered in unison.

"Yes," George replied. "Don't listen to them."

"Oh yeah thanks George," Lee commented.

"What I do?"

"You just ruined any chance of us looking cool," Fred said. "Now that she thinks-"

"I'm sitting right here," I interjected. They looked at me like they really _had_ forgotten that I was sitting in the same compartment as them.

"And you don't have to lie," I added. "I'm a first year too."

"Really?" Lee asked. "You look so much more mature than the other girls here."

"Lee, you're freaking her out," Fred said.

I giggled, "No he's not, he's funny."

Lee beamed, "See that you gits? She thinks that _I'm_ the funny one here." That launch a full fledged argument about who out of the three of them was the funniest one. All I did was roll my eyes.

 _This was going to be interesting..._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Fast forward two months into Angelina's first year at Hogwarts.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

* * *

"Alright class, in order to complete this week's lesson on the levitation charm, I need you to pair up," Professor Flitwick announced. As everyone got up to find a partner, I looked around. The only people that I had gotten to know so far were Fred, George, and Lee. The problem was that they were not in this class with me. Part of me wanted to just stay seated and hope that someone would come up to me, but I knew that I would be risking embarrassment if no one actually walked up to me.

"Excuse me." I turned and saw a girl with curly dark brown hair standing in front of me. She was clutching her books and her wand.

"You're Angelina right?" She asked.

I nodded, "And you're Alicia?"

She smiled, "Yep. Do you want to be my partner?"

"Sure," I replied. She sat down in the seat next to me and put her books down.

"Alright class," Professor Flitwick interjected. "Now I see that everyone has a partner. What I would like you to do is levitate the feathers in front of you-"

"Professor?"

"Yes Penny?"

"There are no feathers in front of any of us," Penny stated.

Flitwick sighed, "My dear girl. If you had just let me finish directions you would hear that I would be _giving_ you the feathers." Some people in class chuckled, including Alicia.

"Oh," Penny said. She was slowly going red in the face. After finishing his speech, Professor Flitwick feathers over to each person in the class. Angelina watched as her feather landed perfectly on top of her charms book.

"So Flitwick said that we both had to have our feathers in the air for more than ten seconds in order to get a good grade?" Alicia asked.

"Basically," I replied.

"Oh this is way _too_ easy," Alicia said.

 **Levitating a feather turned out to be harder than it sounded.**

Firstly, it took Alicia and I five minutes just to levitate each of our feathers. Then, they would only stay in the air for a few seconds before they would fall back down onto the desk. Thankfully we weren't the only ones in the class who were having difficulty. The boy sitting next to me managed to levitate his feather, but the second it got into the air it turned green and disintegrated.

"How did you do that?" His partner asked.

"I have no idea," The boy answered.

"Yes!"

"We did it!"

It took them half an hour, but we managed to get both of their feathers in air at the same time.

"Ah very good girls," Professor Flitwick said as he walked over to us He pulled his stopwatch out of his pocket.

"Ten seconds begins now," He announced. The whole class then stopped what they were doing to watch us. I felt eyes on me as I struggled to stay focused.

"Time," Flitwick exclaimed and our feathers floated back down. The whole class cheered in response. Alicia and I smiled at each other.

"Excellent job Ms. Spinnet and Ms. Johnson," Professor Flitwick said.

* * *

That afternoon Alicia and I entered the common room. We saw Fred, George, and Lee sitting in the corner of the room. Fred and Lee were on the couch while George was in an armchair. I walked over to them with Alicia following close behind me.

"Hey Angelina," George said since he was the first one to see me approaching. Lee and Fred turned around.

"Angie who's your friend?" Fred asked.

"This is Alicia Spinnet," I replied. "Alicia this is Fred, Geogre, and Lee."

"Hi," Alicia said.

"Hello."

"Hi."

"Pull up a couple seats," Lee said. "We were just talking about families."

"What do you mean?" Alicia asked as the two of us pulled up chairs.

"Like how every single one of our siblings before us were in Gryffindor," Fred stated pointing to George and himself.

"Or how Lee's Mum sends him a pie each week to make sure that he's eating _properly_ ," Fred added. They all chuckled in response as Lee rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Hey, I'm not complaining," Lee said. "My Mum's pies are fantastic."

"What about you Angelina?" George asked. The attention was then turned towards me.

"Well I have an older brother and sister," I said.

"Is your brother on Gryffindor's quidditch team?" Lee asked.

I nodded, "Yeah he's a chaser."

"See Fred I knew that was her brother," Lee said.

"Fine. Fine Lee you win," Fred stated as he put his hand into his pocket. He pulled out a Galleon and handed it to his friend.

"Is your sister in Gryffindor too?" Alicia asked.

I shook my head, "No. She's in Slytherin."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Disclaimer: I still do not own Harry Potter

* * *

"What's wrong with being a Slytherin?" I asked after seeing all of their reactions.

"Well Slytherins aren't the _nicest_ people," Alicia answered.

"That's putting it mildly," Lee interjected.

"Plus, you-know-who was in that house when he went here," George added.

"But those are all just stereotypes," I argued. "My Mum was in Slytherin went she went to Hogwarts and she's the nicest person in the world. The same goes for Denise and the You-Know-Who thing doesn't matter now because he's dead."

"How do you know that?" Fred asked.

"Because my Dad said so and he works in the Ministry of Magic," I answered. I could feel a hint of annoyance creeping up my spine.

"Well my Dad does too and he reckons that he could still be out there somewhere," Fred argued.

"Oh please, your Dad works in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office," I snapped. "My Dad's the head of the Department of Security. Who's the more info-"

"Why should anyone believe a bloke who married a Slytherin?" Fred interjected. "There's obviously something wrong with him if he chose to do that." Okay, now it was safe to say that I was pissed.

"What are you saying Fred?" I asked.

"Oh I'm saying that maybe you and the rest of your family don't belong in Gryffindor. Maybe you should go join Slytherin and become Death Eaters just like your parents, because we all know that your sister is on her way to becoming-" That's when I did something I would regret:

I slapped him.

The common room was silent, I guess that everyone had stopped to watch the screaming match between the two of us. Without a word, I exited the common room.

* * *

I could feel tears streaming down my face, hot and stinging.

I wasn't sure where I was going, I just knew that I needed to get away from that room. I didn't want to go back in there for a long time. I could still here Fred's words in my head and I think that the reason they hurt so bad was because in some way they were true.

Maybe I had a little spoiled or something, but I wasn't sheltered. I could've been sheltered, my parents wouldn't do that to us. I mean Mum would always tell us that family was the one thing that truly mattered and not to care what anyone else thought because they were just jealous. Growing up my family took trips to France and Spain. We always had the best seats at the quidditch games.

"If you can afford the best, you get the best," Dad would say.

Although, part of me also started to realize that all the kids that I had been friends with growing up were children of people who were friends with my parents. The first time that I was really expose to a diverse group of people was my very first day at school a couple months ago.

Oh my gosh I really am-

I felt myself being knocked to the ground as I ran into something hard.

When I finally came to my senses I saw a boy getting up and picking his books up with him.

"I'm so sorry," I exclaimed as I got to my feet. Once the boy had fixed himself up, he looked at me and smiled.

"No it's my fault I wasn't paying attention," He said.

"Neither was I," I stated.

He laughed, "Well maybe we're both in the wrong here."

I gave him a small smile, "Yeah maybe so." He placed the stack of books on the ground next to him and stuck out his hand.

"I'm Oliver Wood," He said.

"Angelina Johnson." We shook hands.

"Oh are you perhaps related to-"

"Yes I'm Gabe's younger sister," I interjected.

"So then you must be excellent at Quidditch," Oliver guessed.

I shrugged, "I'm not _terrible_ at it."

"What house are you in?"

"Gryffindor," I answered.

"Brilliant so am I! You should definitely think about going out for the team then next year," He said. "We could use someone who isn't _terrible."_

I laughed, "Hey!"

"What? Your words not mine," Oliver joked.

"Um Oliver do you happen to heading to the Gryffindor common room?" I asked.

"Uh, well-"

"It's completely fine if you're not. I just thought that I'd ask because I'm-"

"Lost?" Oliver guessed.

"Yep," I said. "One of the downfalls of being a first year." Oliver picked up his books and started walking. For a moment, I just stood there. He stopped walking after a few seconds and turned around.

"Well are you coming or what?" He asked with a smile. I returned his smile, nodded, and followed him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Okay so this chapter will pick up a week before Angelina is to go home for Christmas. _(This is also a relatively shorter chapter compared to the others.)_

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

* * *

As much I loved the holidays, I was having a hard time getting into the spirit. It was mostly due to the amount of work that I still had to finish. Apparently, giving a ton of homework right before the holidays was a thing around here.

Fred and I hadn't really talked since the common room incident. I mean, it wasn't like we completely ignored each other when we would seen each other. A greeting would pass between our lips, but that would be all. Alicia said that we were both being stubborn, which wasn't far from the truth.

I was sitting at a table in the library peering over a large (and rather dusty) book about an ancient wizard that lived over a hundred years ago when I heard someone approach me.

"Angelina." I looked up from my book and was surprised to see Fred standing in front of me. No one else was with him.

"Fred," I said simply, not too sure what to say.

"Whatcha reading?" Fred asked.

"The autobiography of Martin Mackellan," I replied.

"I have no idea who that is," Fred said.

"Oh believe me, I've been reading this book for over an hour and _I'm_ still not even sure he is exactly," I joked. For a moment we laughed and then it was silent. Fred put his stuff down on the table and took a seat in the empty chair in front of me.

"Angelina...I'm sorry," He said. "I was being complete git. No. Wait. I was being a _stubborn_ git because we both know that I should have apologized to you months ago and I wouldn't be surprised if you wanted to punch me in the-" I cut Fred off by reaching over and putting my hand over his mouth. He was talking very fast and his face was turning red as his hair. I lifted my hand off of his mouth and he remained quiet.

"Fred, you're forgiven," I stated.

"Well that's a relief," Fred commented and together we both laughed.

 ** _"Shh!"_**

We turned and the librarian glaring at us. She had a single finger over her lips.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"What she said," Fred added. Although when she turned around we both couldn't help but grin at each other.

 _At that moment I was happy, I got a friend back._


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, like at all.

* * *

My family was having afternoon tea while employees from this company that my Mum had hired were cooking in the kitchen. We were having this Christmas party. A bunch of people were coming to our home, from family to friends of my parents. Usually, these parties were extremely boring, but since I was a little older I had my hopes up.

"So how has your first year at Hogwarts been so far Angie?" Denise asked. I looked up from the book that I was reading.

"Pretty good," I replied. "I made some friends." That seemed to interest my Mum because she perked up when she heard the words come out of my mouth.

"Oh really? Who?" She asked.

"Well, there's Lee Jordan, Alicia Spinnet, George and Fred Weasley-"

"What?" Everyone looked over at my sister who had nearly choked on her tea.

"Denise sweetheart are you alright?" Mum asked.

"I'm fine Mum," She said. "Seriously though Angie, the Weasleys?"

"What's wrong with the Weasleys?" Gabe asked. "I mean, I know Percy Weasley-"

"You told me that you thought that he was annoying," Denise argued.

"Yeah, he's not a bad person-like your tone of voice is making his family seem like," Gabe stated.

"I just don't want Angie to get involved with _blood traitors_ ," Denise sneered. Everyone at the table gasped and I'm sure that the people in the kitchen were listening because I heard someone in there gasp as well.

"Denise-"

"Dad you don't know what they're saying at school," Denise said. "They're calling our family _muggle-lovers_ and-"

"Denise Elizabeth Johnson go to your room," Dad commanded.

She then turned to Mum, "Mum you understand right? I mean, you were in Slytherin too and-"

"Honey just go to room." Mum said this almost under her breath, but it got the point across all the same. I saw the tears weld up in my sister's eyes as she looked at each and every one of us.

I started to speak, "Denise-" Although before I could finish what I wanted to say, my sister had already left the room.

For a moment, a silence had filled the room that seemed never ending. I wanted to open my book back up again but I couldn't, I was too busy thinking about Denise.

"Well I'm going to go check on the staff in the kitchen. I want to make sure that I'm getting my money's worth, Narcissa Malfoy highly recommended them and her parties are always exquisite," Mom said. She got up from her seat and picked up her cup and plate. With that, she headed into the kitchen. This left Dad, Gabe, and I sitting at the table. After a few seconds of staring at each other, Dad stood up.

"I'm going to go get some work done," He announced. "If you need I will be in my study." Gabe and I nodded in response, with that Dad left the table.

"And then there were two," Gabe stated. He glanced over at me to see if I heard what he had said.

 _I had._

 _I just wasn't in the mood for laughing._

Gabe sighed, "You know it's not your fault right?"

"What?""

"Denise has been thinking like this for a long time," Gabe stated. "You just haven't noticed it until now."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"You haven't been at school with us until a few months ago," Gabe replied. "When I was sorted into Gryffindor my first year she didn't talk to me for weeks. In her mind, I was dishonoring the family. Even though she conveniently seems to forget that Dad was in Gryffindor too." He was right, Dad was in Gryffindor.

"Maybe I should just go and talk to her," I suggested.

"Not a good idea," Gabe said. "But that's only my opinion."

I stood up from my seat, "It's still worth a shot though."

Gabe shrugged, "Good luck then."

I left the table, leaving my book where I sat, and started towards Denise's room with the idea that I was going to have a conversation with my sister.

* * *

I knocked on her door, there was no answer.

"Denise, I'm coming in," I announced as I slowly opened the door. Denise wasn't in her room. Her window was opened so I went to shut it and that's when I saw it.

My older sister had left a note on her bed. I picked it up before I sat down on the bed.

 _Dear whoever is reading this,_

 _I've decided to go and stay with a friend for a few weeks. It won't be too long, so don't worry. It's just with the NEWTS being this year,_

 _the stress has become too much. I promise that I will come back safely._

 _Love,_

 _D._

I sat the note down on the bed next to me and stared at the family picture that Denise had sitting on her desk.

"She left," I said to myself. I've never known my sister to be one to run away from something. I mean, Mum and Dad taught all three of us to always face our challenges head on. I picked up the note again and reread it. She obviously didn't leave because of the NEWTs. Why would she think that we all would believe that?

Oh how was I going to explain this to Gabe, Mum and Dad? They were all expecting to see her later. I folded the note up and put it in my pocket.

I sighed, for some reason I couldn't shake the feeling that everything that I had known to be normal was about to change forever **_whether I liked it or not_**.


End file.
